Anyway, one day I was brought onto the show and interrogated on live local television. When asked about my family, I remember discussing the fact that my older brother Ronnie would always torment me with his teasing which often bordered on a type of unrelenting psychological torture (bullying)
Our brotherly "disputes" often got us into boxing and wrestling episode. Although bigger than me, I could often get the better of him in an out and out conflict. These abusive verbal assaults continued for all of my growing up as did our frequent fights. I had a very short fuse and bad temper and Ronnie really knew how to push my buttons.
This bullying and the anti-semitic episodes that I will describe later shaped my childhood. As explained in Carol Angier's detailed biography of Promo Levi ("The Double Bond, Promo Levi a Biography"):
"There is a latent fascism in all boys, a tendency to despise the weak and to worship the strong. When political fascism takes over this tendency is no longer controlled, like the dangerous animal it is, but let out, its coat brushed to a glossy sheen. The bullies are encouraged, the victims left more defenseless than ever; and altogether the situation of a small, skinny, clever Jewish boy becomes unenviable, even in an academic, ex-antifascist school." (Angier, p. 89).
Today, Ronnie has grown up to be a good parent and devoted husband and seems to have thrown off that aspect of his early personality. At any rate, he has sent me money, on occasion, when I really needed it, has been supportive of my painting career (he has his own collection of my works in his beautiful home), and seems as well balanced as any of us, given the mental health problems of our mother.
Ronnie and Jerry